1. Field of The Invention
This invention relates to a method of using adenosine compounds to induce anesthesia, sedation, analgesia, hypothermia, and to ameliorate stress.
2. Related Art
A patient is protected from the pain and stress of surgery and similar procedures by anesthesia which allows the maintenance of physiological homeostasis.
Adenosine has a variety of extracellular effects. It is known to have potent vasodilating, blood pressure lowering (hypotensive) and shock-inducing effects, but has never been demonstrated to have anesthetic activity when used clinically. Furthermore, the conventional wisdom is that neither adenosine nor adenosine triphosphate (hereinafter ATP), an adenine nucleotide, circulating in the blood, will cross the blood brain barrier. Therefore, despite analgesic and sedative effects suggested by previous studies in laboratory experiments, neither adenosine nor ATP had ever been thought to be suitable as anesthetics. A major problem with prior studies is that they were performed under such poorly controlled conditions that the vital signs: circulatory, such as blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory functions were not measured. Because data on the behavior of these parameters are essential in determining therapeutic efficacy, these studies failed to teach whether such potential analgesic and sedative effects were caused by the profound effects of these compounds on cardiovascular function, namely: hypotension, coma, bradycardia, or shock. Failure to determine the vital signs, and to isolate the analgesic properties from the coma or shock, which may be produced by potent hypotensive effects of adenosine, render these reports fatally flawed as teaching analgesia or sedation caused by adenosine. Consequently, previous studies do not evaluate usage for treatment purposes of these agents. Based on previous reports, such effects (analgesia, sedation) could not possibly have been translated to clinical applicability.
A variety of drugs are presently used to provide anesthesia. Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 7th Ed., 1985, MacMillan, New York, Chapters 13 and 14 provide an overview of the field of anesthesiology as currently understood by those skilled in the art.
Total replacement or dose reduction of other anesthetics have definite clinical advantages such as decreased toxicity and rapid recovery from anesthesia. These advantages can be realized because inhalational or other synthetic chemical anesthetics are often toxic even when used at the required effective dose and can produce severe cardiorespiratory and metabolic side effects. Secondly, the amount of anesthetic actually being used by the patient is subject to guesswork in the operating room.
Adenosine and ATP are endogenous compounds and, as a consequence, are unlikely to produce toxic effects. Both adenosine and ATP are known to be rapidly metabolized and eliminated from the blood stream; when the infusion is stopped, recovery starts immediately and proceeds rapidly. Therefore, either adenosine, ATP, or functionally similar adenosine compounds would be ideal replacements for inhalational anesthetics, and replacements for opioid analgesics.
In the present invention, it has been possible to isolate and demonstrate the intrinsic anesthetic properties of adenosine compounds. Applicant has found that under normal blood pressure and normal metabolic and respiratory functions, administration of an adenosine compound, such as adenosine and ATP, produced potent analgesic, sedative, and stress inhibiting effects, such as. antihypertension and blood pressure control. Furthermore, such administralon ameliorated undesirable cardiovascular and respiratory functions deteriorated by other anesthetics during anesthesia indicating that such adenosine compounds are superior anesthetic agents. This finding is unexpected and surprising because these agents are known to be potent hypotensive, bradycardic, and shock-inducing agents which clinicians would try to avoid.
Furthermore, when a subject anesthetized with an adenosine compound is then subjected to body temperature decrease, the decrease is not accompanied by shivering, cardiovascular distress, or pulmonary distress. This effect holds for drops in body temperature at least as large as 10.degree. C. to 20.degree. C.
Adenosine compounds have also been discovered to provide excellent blood and tissue oxygenation. As such, an adenosine compound can be used to maintain donor organs for transplant in the best possible condition while still in the donor body and the period of time between removal from the donor body and implantation. Furthermore, the excellent blood and tissue oxygenation induced by the adenosine compound can be used to maintain the organ and the organ recipient in the best possible condition.